


Blue Sky Eyes and Forget-Me-Not Wishes

by baconbits1760



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ballroom Dancing, Blood, Dancing, Fluff, Gay, Guys I'm Not Joking Its Mostly Pining, Injury, M/M, Mild Language, Minor Injuries, Pining, Post-Infinity War, Pre- Endgame, Stitches, Unruly Powers, like a lot of pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2019-10-02 17:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17268164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baconbits1760/pseuds/baconbits1760
Summary: After the events of Thanos's Snap, people find solace in a lot of things. For Tony its building, for Steve its training, and for Thor, its being head over heels for someone who seemingly doesn't notice. Its not his fault, after all, but its hard enough to control his powers on a good day. Let alone when someone he's falling for is putting their hands on his chest.





	1. Electrocuting the Hell out of a Mug

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ian_is_so_very_lost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ian_is_so_very_lost/gifts).



One of the first things taught in etiquette classes is the importance of eyes. They show who and what you're looking at, and most importantly, why you're looking. And staring was the most common offence that landed Thor in his father's, _the King's_ , chambers after class. But even after years of practice, he found himself to suddenly be that little curious prince once again. Staring at the cute man across the way.

His breath hitched in his throat and all he could _do_ was stare. Some confusing and complicated urge in his soul wanted him to scream and sing and smile like an idiot all at once. Somehow he had forgotten any etiquette he had been taught just because of a man.

And as much as he had avoided him or the thoughts that flowed through his head like streams from a river, he found himself too deep to turn back.  
Thor leaned back against the couch watching this scene as fondly as someone so smitten could.

His eyes stung. He felt like his lungs had hit his stomach, and his heart had been thrown into his throat. He fought to keep conscious and felt like he had never been more awake all within the same milliseconds. He could feel his chest rise up and down rapidly, far faster than a sitting position should warrant.

He had laughed.

A genuine and unbridled sound that erupted from his smaller frame like a siren’s song.  
Such a plain and simple noise had truly forced a god into a state so close to catatonic it was almost painful to come back from. The high that made him feel like laughing and crying was gently wrapping it's comforting arms around him.

_'He’s amazing.'_

And then suddenly he was jerked back down into his body again, leaving him empty and wanting.  
“Thor?” Banner was looking at him now, the tears from his fit of laughter still gleaming in the late afternoon sun like golden gems on his cheeks. “What are you looking at?” Thor tried to slow his now rapid breathing as the scientist tried to follow his gaze, turning to look behind him. It dawned on him now, as he returned to the present, that everyone else had also laughed along with Bruce, and he had been silent. Hot. He was too hot. It felt like the world was an infernal orange. Warm flicks of oil raced up from his core, following the subway map of veins into his hands. It raced up into his head and through his back. Thor couldn’t quite explain why he had only heard Banner’s laughter. It was so clear that he could replay the sound forever if he wanted to. And he did, undoubtedly. He wanted to make that sound happen everyday for as long as he was alive.

When the scientist saw nothing there, he looked back to him in slight confusion. Another pint of searing oil burst from his heart, rolling into every crevice he had.“Ah sorry, I-”

The voice that spoke felt so unsure and staccato that he feared he had lost his hearing, the sound of his heartbeat had been so deafening before this moment that he had forgotten what he sounded like. “Uh I- um thought I saw a strange bird outside.”  
There was a small trepidation in the conversation before anyone spoke that made Thor’s heart race, everyone was looking at him. Watching him stumble over his words with a lack of confidence they’d only seen on rare occasions. It had only been a second before Tony cleared his throat, “Yeah I think Rhodey's out on perimeter patrol so it was probably just him. Anyway-”

Thor tried his hardest to give Tony the respect and attention that everyone else was giving him, but the swelling feeling that someone was watching him was starting to prickle the side of his face. He was careful to not draw anyone else's attention and shift slightly to look around the room, everyone's gaze on Tony, or the drink in their hand. Everyone with the exception to Bruce, who was slyly eyeing the god up and down. No doubt his scientific curiosity was leading his thorough investigation of the Asgardian’s new and strange behavior. Thor watched the man’s technique for a moment. His brown eyes would move rhythmically from him to Tony and back. Tony, him, Tony, him.  
Without meaning to, he met his stare. Bruce tilted his head ever so slightly, and his eyes shifted down towards the edge of the couch. A calm and content smile that sat on Banner’s face was enough to send Thor’s heart into hyperdrive, and it had only formed as they had made eye contact.

It hurt.

His arms ached and his head swam. Without the reasoning behind his body’s reactions, he would have naturally assumed he was dying.

It hurt to feel like this. But somewhere in him he liked this.

He wanted this.

All of it.

Nervousness ran through Thor’s limbs like electricity, currents burning his arms and face as he looked away once again. “Uh Thor-” He jolted up slightly at the mention of his name and looked to Natasha who glanced at his hands worriedly. “You’re electrocuting the hell out of that mug man.” As she spoke, he could feel the mug cracking and writhing with his own electrical current.

And with a last and final breath, the mug crumpled and shattered in his hand, spraying beer on himself and the wooden end table in front of him. Even as the glass hit the ground, his hands still smoked and little blue and white bolts danced between his fingers. The rest of the group let out small yelps of surprise, but most of them after the initial drama, were unfazed.

Thor’s newfound unruliness over his own powers had started after his first encounter with Hela. The lost of Mjolnir was devastating. But his lack of control was a solely emotional conundrum. Fighting was easy, he had never truly struggled to keep a calm mind in battle, and his powers had been continuously in his grasp. But his thoughts in everyday life. Those were complicated.

  
Thor bending over backwards to try and get a small look at the scientist was something Natasha and Steve could attest to seeing on multiple accounts, and each was followed by some electrical disturbance.Walking by the lab Tony and Bruce slaved away in and getting too close to a socket or light switch wasn’t uncommon. Honestly one of his least favorite memories occurred in that lab, and Thor had unwillingly associated his embarrassment with Banner and Tony’s workplace.

  
Nothing had specifically changed that day, his routine hadn’t strayed. It started when Tony and Banner had requested for him to come to the lab. They wanted to run some tests on the chemical makeup of godly beings, and since Thor was the only one still alive, they couldn’t really pick and chose.  
They had started with hooking him up to several different machines via strange circular suction devices that, honestly, Thor didn’t want to look at.

Mostly because of who was applying them.


	2. Suction Cups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor’s embarrassing moments seem to haunt him.

Tony had paced out of the lab for a minute to take a call of some importance. Which left the other two to stand in slightly awkward silence. Banner looked at the equipment in his hands as he spoke, “I need you to take off your shirt to put these on.” The scientist let the end of his sentence trail off as he put more focus onto unwrapping the wired mass he held in his arms. Thor nodded, reaching behind his head to grip the soft fabric that rested on his neck. Ducking his head inward slightly, he pulled off his shirt in one swift motion. Banner finally got the cords undone, “Okay so I’m gonna start by wrapping this around your-” 

The scientist looked surprised to see Thor shirtless, and the small noise he made seemed to secure his shock at seeing a god’s physique.   
Good gods, Thor wanted to do anything to get him closer. Pull him in quickly by the waist, or maybe even just a shoulder. It felt like his stomach was lurching out of his body.  
“Arm- sorry anyway, yeah so this-” He said lifting up a large strip of black fabric in his left hand, “is going to go around your arm.” Trying not to drag the tangle of cords too haphazardly, the smaller man set out to work his way over. 

Banner decided to set the pile of equipment on the metal table next to Thor, and when he finished that task he turned to him with a focused look on his face. From this proximity, he couldn’t help but notice how tired the small man looked, his curly, greying, hair falling in and around his eyes. His hair, unlike Thor’s, had quickly returned to the long sweeping mess it had been 3 years ago. And Thor loved every curl and strand as they framed his face perfectly no matter the circumstance.

His heartbeat sang in his ears like the soundtrack to a movie he couldn’t name or define, setting the plot to a story he wasn’t allowed to read. The longer he searched his face the more he felt hungrier to continue.   
Banner had always said he hated the way he looked, and mostly he just hated himself. Thor was beginning to realize that the scientist might be the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen in his 1,500 years of existence. Whenever Banner would make some off-hand, self destructive, comment, Thor was always the first to argue against it.   
Recently, he realized the pangs he felt whenever Banner did this were heartbreak. He thought Bruce Banner was the most incredible and intelligent and funny man he’d ever met. And the thought that he couldn’t see those qualities in himself was so soul crushing. Everything about the scientist made him feel like a glass teetering on the edge of a table. If he ignored it long enough, the glass would remain in its position, far enough away from the edge to remain upright. But if any force, whether outside or inner, acted upon the glass, it will surely fall. And fall he did. Every moment he was in the same universe as him he felt himself edge towards the ground. Eventually he would shatter with the sheer pressure of his own thoughts.

Sometimes he’d notice, especially in quiet moments like this, how lonely Banner looked. When no one was looking, just small little glimpses into the isolation that the man forced himself into. The small wrinkles that sparked out from his chocolate brown eyes became far more obvious when he wasn’t speaking.   
When the nights became longer with the arbitrary changing of the season on Midgard, Thor often found Banner alone. It was strange, now, to see him interact with Tony and the others so normally. As if he hadn’t spent the past 8 nights alone in the lab. The dark purple rings above his cheekbones were a testament to his bad habits.  
He wished for nothing more than to observe this human’s face from a closer position. To gently pull him in an take in every scar and blemish that lay upon his skin. 

Stop it! 

 

He realized too slowly that he was now quietly staring at Banner. He felt a burning heat rise up his chest and throat, and decided to move his gaze to the unexplored parts of the lab. Luckily, if Bruce has noticed the god, he hadn’t acknowledged it, even though some part of Thor wished he had.   
The gleaming silver of the counter next to him drew his attention for a small while. It was polished enough that as Banner was finishing the last of the untangling, Thor could get an admittedly warped, but still plausible view of him.   
The thought dawned on him that this method wasn’t, truly, any better than his first, but he decided to ignore it.   
As he was so absorbed in his internal rambling he hardly noticed Banner had started hooking up the machinery. It was only when his fingers touched Thor’s left bicep that the god physically tensed.   
A small static-like bolt of lighting darted out of his skin and onto Banner’s ring finger, and the man snatched his hand away instinctually, breathing in through clenched teeth. Before he had enough time to process, Thor took a step towards the man, worry washing over every other thought.

“Banner are you alright, I didn’t mean to-” 

Yet again, as he came within half a foot, another blue bolt jumped from his hand onto Banner’s right shoulder, with speed almost invisible to the scientist. This time it looked like the poor man had been punched, and he let out a small grunt as the muscles under his skin contracted unwillingly. “Damn it I’m sorry- I don’t, um- I ah-” The god stumbled back slightly, trying to make as much distance between them as possible in a short time, fearful of the damage another bolt would cause. “Ah- Thor no, it’s fine.” There was a slight tilt of pain and amusement behind the other’s voice as he stretched his shoulder back out. After a small pause to catch his breath, Banner spoke. “Okay. Let’s try this again-” He looked up into the god’s eyes, smiling. “Shall we?” Thor let out a small breath, it turning into a soft chuckle as it passed his lips. He nodded, and shifted back onto the platform. 

This time, as Bruce began wrapping the black fabric around his left bicep, Thor kept his focus on steady breathing. He made sure to just watch the ground, and think of something that put him into another setting, far away from whatever was causing him to electrocute his friend. The calm winds of Asgard on a summer day, the shattering coldness of the bifrost.  
Banner, in the meantime, was taking extremely cautious measures to ensure he didn’t lose his cool. A visit from the Hulk, although Thor would be delighted, would not be acceptable to Tony, who would undoubtedly replace him with one of his many interns. All though the loss of one seemed to have taken a large bite out of Tony’s personality as of late. He doubted he would notice if half the lab was destroyed.   
Thor could tell, from the quick, scattered glances, that Bruce was trying his best to make the least amount of physical contact possible. He tried to ignore the thought of someone avoiding any contact with him, but the idea made something throb inside his chest. It wasn’t fair to Bruce that he only seemed to shock him, the only man who was stronger than he was. The most dangerous Avenger, and his body felt the need to antagonize him. He wasn’t really confident it was meant to be antagonizing, he wished no ill will upon this human in particular. Actually it normally seemed to be the opposite, he tended to favor Banner over most of the others. Although that was starting to become almost painfully apparent.

“Wow.”

Thor looked up and to his right where Banner now stood, watching one of the many holograms hovering somewhere in the room. The blue light reflecting off his face brightly, his eyes wide in a mixture of some confusion and surprise. “I’m not sure if this monitor is fucked up or what, but its saying you’re electrical patterns are running wild.” He mimed a swiping motion that turned the screen towards Thor. “His electric thing’s doin’ what now?” Tony said, strutting into the room.

“I’m, uh, honestly not sure. The monitor is shorting out again.” Tony raised an eyebrow and turned to Thor, “Are you feeling okay, Thor?” Again that burning warmth, that he hadn’t even noticed disappear, once again rose up his chest and neck. “Yep. Shockingly good actually.” He said with a slight smirk, eyeing Banner, who tried his best to keep a straight face. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, he turned quickly away from Tony. Thor felt like screaming. Smiles weren’t rare for Banner, but the feeling of making him laugh was something Thor craved like an addict.

“Everything else except the electrical readout seems normal right?” Tony asked, not taking his eyes off the god. In fact, he weaved his way towards him, in and out of the way of tables and computer parts with impressive expertise, reminding Thor of a shark in bloody water. “Yes. For a human at least, which I would guess is because he’s-” “using a physical form yeah yeah, so what do we need to do to understand your makeup?” Tony asked, eyeing Thor up and down. Before he could answer the question, the billionaire spoke again, “Banner come over here and help me finish setting this up.” Stark stated as he shifted his unnervingly intelligent focus onto something more relevant, the set of circular disks that were sitting along on the table. “Oh, yeah sure.”   
Instead of Tony applying the disks himself, he handed two of them to Banner, and took the jacks at the other end of the connecting wire over to a black box. The slight trepidation that Banner displayed was painful to watch, and within a moment he seemed to shake it off. 

With a quiet, and slightly shaky hand, Bruce pressed the first disk just below Thor’s right collar bone. In order to even apply enough pressure to make it stick, he had to press the underside of his forearm against the gods chest. Without thinking, he placed his other hand on the god’s lower torso, his palm and thumb resting perfectly in the curve between where his thigh and abs met. No doubt Bruce was hoping to get a little more stability out of him.   
Thor’s stomach swooped so low that the thought he was falling. His arms tensed as he fought the sudden indescribable urge to pull Banner into his arms completely and just be there, as close as he could get to him.   
What the hell control yourself!   
Again, he was aware of how hard it is for him to just breathe normally, his breath hitching with every small movement of Banner’s, and having to fight to just get it back into beat. With every breath, their skin met at some point on the god’s chest. And everytime it happened, Thor felt a wave of something wash over him. It wasn’t exactly hunger, he didn’t feeling like he was starving for Banner to always be this close. Want. He wanted this. At any moment he would drop whatever he was doing and surrender to this closeness.

The hand on his hip wasn’t unwelcome, although surprising. Banner was an anxious creature, and although he was touchy on Sakaar, he normally avoided any physical contact. But this felt different, the past times had been a rather sudden and desperate need of physical confirmation. The grabbing of upper arms or the top of shoulders was more of a way to steady the other in a stressful moment when they were away from Midgard, but in this moment Thor felt like he could hear the entire world all at once. He closed his eyes and let that burning feeling wash over him.  
Banner was expecting a shock, or even a small amount of static, but when he looked up at Thor he understood the sudden lack of voltage. The god was closing his eyes, and breathing slowly, his tan chest rising visibly with every conscious inhale. Banner took this action as a way of trying to actively control his powers, but he wanted to check his assumption. He made sure to be quiet enough that only Thor would be able to hear him as he spoke, “Thor?” The god opened his good eye. “What are you doing?” His chest rumbled under his hand as he spoke, “I’m not sure I just- I thought maybe if I focused hard enough I could… I could stop this.” His voice was soft and incredibly gentle for such a powerful creature as he gestured toward the scientist. “Well keep at it buddy.” He said pressing the other disk on, patting his chest unconsciously.   
Thor felt like he was on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all hope you like it! New chapter coming soon!


	3. Power Outrage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone gets caught and someone gets too excited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo yo yo! Let's play a game of spot the reference! Hint: You're gonna have to know your DnD!

Banner had been leaning on the God as the application process had continued, and as he stepped backward his balance was suddenly thrown off. Instinctually he reached for whatever was closest. His fingers grazing the god’s forearms as his footing came from underneath him.

It took a millisecond for Thor to realize that Banner was falling. He had been so entangled in the thoughts of endearment that he was almost too slow to catch him. His rough and calloused hands reached him before the whole of Banner’s weight was thrown parallel to the ground. He had to swoop down just to catch him. He had clapped his hands onto the man and tried his hardest to stay upright.

One hand rested on the small of Banner’s back, although Thor was on the larger side so it took up more than half of his lower back. His fingers laced into the folds of the scientist lab coat, digging deeper when the human relaxed slightly. 

The other hand was stretched perfectly between Bruce’s shoulder blades. As if it were the only logical option, Thor pulled Banner closer. Purposefully stepping farther from the edge, to give him room to stand once he released him from this panicked embrace. 

But he didn’t let go. He inhaled as if it's the first breath he’s ever taken.  
And he didn’t let go. He looked at Banner with such fondness that he was sure all of space could see it.  
And he didn’t let go.  
And he stood there...not letting go.

He eagerly allowed this position to remain as they took a moment to process. Banner’s hands were wrapped haphazardly around the middle of Thor’s torso, his head centimeters from resting on Thor’s chest. He felt the human’s lungs expand as he finally caught his breath. Again the man looked thoroughly shaken. Small, almost invisible veins of green slithered their way around his fingers and neck.

“Banner...Are you alright?” Thor murmured, looking down at the man he was holding. He felt like an oil lamp. Every spot where their skin met, a soft and calming feeling seeped deep into him. In an almost embarrassed manner, Bruce nodded, letting the question hang with no verbal response. A rosy pink had risen into his ears and cheeks as he leaned his head against Thor.  
“Are you sure?” Thor ducked his head inward, daring to get closer to him. He could feel Banner shaking beneath his fingertips, no doubt terrified of Hulking out in the middle of Tony’s coveted lab. The heat of their bodies together felt so comforting to him. Somehow he felt...guilty for this. For the stumble, the distraction, the intimacy that he had set onto the situation. But he was a selfish and stubborn god. He was belligerent and wrathful, and he took what he wanted.

Lives.  
Belongings.  
….Lovers.

He could lie to himself all he wanted but he knew somewhere in him that he would never force Bruce into anything. He couldn’t. It would break his heart to inflict any more pain onto the man. He thought the world of Thor, and Thor couldn’t bear to ruin that.  
If only his mother could see him now. Obsessed with some weak Midguardian who didn’t even cast so much as a hopeful glance his way. Gods, she would kill him if she knew what he wanted to do to him. He felt a smile form on his face, his cheeks obscuring part of his vision slightly. The thought of his late mother scolding him like a child was a sight to behold. Something in him sang like a songbird. He wanted this forever. To hold him like no one was there. 

White strings laced in between the focus of his vision, if he looked at Bruce, the world behind him would turn slightly white. He suddenly became aware that the man hadn’t pushed out of the embrace. Questions began to race through his mind, ‘Why aren’t you disgusted? Or at least more embarrassed than you are?’ He glanced down yet again at the man wrapped in his arms. ‘There’s no way….Does he- No. He wouldn’t.’

The blue light made Banner look amazing. The way his hair curled upward as if it was standing on edge. Although he wasn’t exactly sure what source it was coming from. His whole body hummed excitedly. It was then that he became aware of the incessant beeping, Tony sprinted back into their part of the lab, a feverishly nervous look on his. “What the hell is happening?” Stark called, running his hand through his hair in a panic.  
‘Shit.’  
He realized he should let go. Not emotionally but physically: let go of the man. He dropped Banner onto the ledge as the beginning of what would no doubt be an electrical rampage formed on his arms and chest. The poor man stumbled backward, eyeing the god in confusion. His legs started to burn, and the round plastic disks began to bubble slightly. The heat he was emitting would no doubt set the fire alarms off in a mere moment. He had let himself get too excited, too attached to this moment. 

“Thor?” Everything he saw was turning a bright white. He grunted as the sudden onset of his powers was a physical shock that sent him folding like a sheet of paper. Normally his abilities weren’t painful, but ever since he lost Mjolnir, the sheer pressure of unleashing a full-blown attack was greatly taxing. The static was starting to block out the rest of his thoughts as the feeling of letting go was swiftly looking more and more appetizing. He bit back a cry of pain as he lost his sight entirely. The lightning streaked across his back and around his neck. Coaxing him into relinquishing control. Electricity rolled over his face and into his hair like waves. He heard shouting, calls from somewhere beyond the white. He could hear someone speak to him. They were panicked and rising in volume, their shouts becoming more frequent. It all felt muffled like he was listening through glass walls outside of his body. Like a hospital viewing room into a lethal sporadic episode. 

“Thor!”  
A voice broke through the mist, its sharp blades piercing his body. Suddenly there are hands gripping his arms, burned and raw from his lightning. He gasps for air, blinking desperately in hopes of seeing what’s happening. Their roughed fingers digging deeper into his skin, “Thor!” He could feel the singed hairs on his arms cooling off, as he reached up, moving his hands towards whatever sound was echoing in his head. The voice was so familiar, it felt reassuring and warm. His hands hit something or someone, he could barely recognize the sensation of the person’s body as he feebly wrapped his hands around what he could feel. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks. He wasn’t entirely sure what he had to cry about, but the ache in his head was seemingly endless. Everything burned. 

The hands gripped him tighter, “Thor! Enough!” They seemed out of breath. Something in the crushingly white abyss before him seemed to- move? He wasn’t really positive that anything was moving but he felt movement around him. A face faded into view, their brown eyes warped by green streaks. He tried to breathe, focusing on whatever came into view. Banner seemed furious. “So now we’re having full electrical surges?! When were you going to warn us?!” Dark greens laced up and around his eyes like a mask. But strangely his voice wavered like he was scared. Thor opened his mouth, trying to blurt out an apology or even just an answer, but his voice was ragged. He instead just stared at the floor, his one eye darting between the drops of melted lab equipment that had puddled beneath him and Banner’s shoes. 

A soft hand met the scar that ran across his right eye. “Thor?” He shifted his gaze upward, looking at the soft features of the scientist. “You could have hurt someone.” He scrunched his brow, a somber frown creasing his perfect face. 

“Or worse. You could have been hurt.”


	4. Glass Fingers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor continues to ignore what he wants in favor of avoiding confrontation.

 

Back in the present, he was kneeling on hand and knee, cleaning up the glass with a quiet focus. Natasha and Steve had joined him in tidying up, despite his protests. Although he was happy to have people care about him and Tony’s hardwood flooring, he couldn’t help but worry about inconveniencing them. His habit of entitlement had been shattered on Asgard and then again in Wakanda. Staying quiet and keeping his distance was more enticing than standing out and getting knocked down.

Without warning, a searing pain shot across the pointer finger on his right hand, forcing him to tense and hold his breath. His instinct was to avoid the singed feeling by refusing to breathe. Instead, he forced himself to let out a slow, and steady breath, succumbing to the now heartbeat-like throbbing that pulsed up his hand. He looked down at the shard of glass that was protruding from the base of his finger, a deep royal crimson rising to the surface of the opened wound. The instinctive pull-back motion must have sliced downward from its initial entry point in the middle of his index finger because the blood started to bead from the top of his knuckle and followed the current down toward his palm.

There was a cold numbness that began to spread across the soft ridged skin, and although it was a slight relief from the pain he knew it was best to speed up the process and bandage it as soon as he could. Slowly, trying to be as discreet as possible, he reached down with his other hand. Taking the shard of glass in between his pointer finger and thumb, he quickly pulled it out of its place in his finger and tossed it lightly into the dustpan along with the other pieces. Judging from how long the thin shard was, he guessed that the cut was at least a quarter of an inch deep. He balled his hand into a tight fist and tried to keep steady pressure on it.

It took about 20 minutes to find the last piece of glass. Luckily, the group had decided it had been long enough of a conversation to end it.

After their run-in with Thanos, they had been determined to gather what little forces they had left and take him down once and for all. But after months of searching, he had seemingly disappeared out of the known existence, leaving the rest of the universe to band together and support each other in whatever ways they could.

So every Friday afternoon what was left of the Avengers, Revengers, and whatever other teams that had been involved in Wakanda, met at Stark’s Base in New York. Nobody had ever defined what they were doing, but being together in one place felt somewhat reassuring. People had gotten closer to each other, Tony and Steve had finally given up the radio silence, and Rocket had taken a liking to Clint, which was the most troublesome pair that could have ever existed. One bad encounter with Thor had deterred them from messing with him, but everyone else was suffering from their tyranny.

His finger throbbed again, reminding him to focus on getting to his room. He was sure he had some bandaging somewhere in the tornado that was his living space.

He had singed every single wall in some spot or another, although Friday had sent cleaning robots many times, they could never get the bright white streaks out of the grey walls. Some of them were from nightmares. Waking up in a cold sweat after hearing that horrible sound of his brother’s body hitting the metal floor of the ship certainly caused some underlying emotional trauma. But sometimes he thought too much about other things. Things he shouldn’t think about. He knew he wasn’t supposed to think about a friend like that, but sometimes his thoughts got the better of him.

He stepped swiftly towards the hallway, leaving behind whoever remained to entertain themselves. A small trail of blood droplets lined the floor behind the god as he teetered in a daze back to his room. He had hardly noticed it was still bleeding. Nothing mattered, he just wanted to sit in his room and stare at a wall. Avoid thinking about Ragnarok, about Valkyrie, about Banner. Gods, he would never be powerful enough to stop thinking about Banner.

 _‘Why do you want to ruin this? Why do you want to destroy this dynamic even though you know everyone would be happier if you just stayed quiet?_ ’ Heat rose up this shoulders and through his neck.  _‘Just because you see him every time you imagine your future doesn’t mean he deserves the weight of that knowledge.’_ The guilt in his throat tasted sour.

From a few yards behind him, he heard a faint voice.   
“Is that blood?” Naturally, Thor started to walk faster. Upping his pace so he was nearly jogging. His heart thumped in his ears as he rounded a corner. He knew there was quite a bit of walking left before he reached his segment of the building.  _‘Maybe if I cut through the lab I can go unnoticed.’_

There was no real reason to avoid anyone, but he wasn’t the young and egotistical man he had once been. All he wanted to do was lay down somewhere quiet and no be bothered. Maybe he’d pick up another book from Tony’s collection to glance over later. Honestly, that man’s library was easily ⅓ of the entire base, and it was bordering on hoarder levels of collecting. Besides, he doubted anyone would be there at this time of day, the afternoon was when the scientists tended to crash for a short while. It was kind of like the witching hours of the lab.

He let his body fall into muscle memory as he thought about what he should do for the rest of the day. Steve had insisted on training earlier, so he had already done a majority of his usual routine. He had taken up another pastime of reading rather recently. He noticed that if he understood common Mid Guardian references, the rest of the Avengers became a lot more interesting to listen to. Stark had an especially modern sense of humor, and it was rather difficult to follow along with if the context wasn’t explained to him. At least with some reading, he could understand a small amount more.

It also gave Thor something to talk to Banner about. He had discovered that Banner knew even more about the Hardy Boys than the 7 doctorates he practiced in. So, after discovering this, Thor had raced back to the library to scoop up as many of the books as he could find.

Some days, when there wasn’t a test to run, Thor would just sit on some countertop and berate Tony and Bruce with questions. They were normally separated into Midgard culture and Hardy Boys questions. Tony typically thought of answers faster, so Thor would throw in a reference just to get a reaction out of Banner. Even if Tony gave him a weird look as if confused as to why he would purposely engage Banner in conversation instead of him. It was entertaining to see Stark silenced from a lack of understanding for once. The man was a genius in every way except humility.

Plus watching Banner chuckle under his breath as he scanned through files always made Thor’s head spin. He felt like he was free falling every time. It was exhilarating and terrifying, and dangerously addicting. It was hard to leave a room when he was in it.

His finger throbbed again as he rounded himself through a pair of glass-paneled automatic doors. Ducking his head down slightly, he trudged straight towards the other side of the lab, where another pair of identical doors stood like a golden gate of solitude. All he had to do was make it to those doors and he was scot-free.

He was so focused on weaving around wires and tubing that he almost missed the voice to his right. It was faint, from somewhere down the stretch of lab equipment and computers. “Sir. There’s been a contamination in the lab. It’s not safe to test the chemical until the problem has been fixed.” The voice was female, and calm in tone. But Thor recognized one of Tony’s little robot creations anywhere. Nervousness pricked at his neck as he tried to walk faster.

‘ _Dammit, why does this laboratory need to take up the entire building?!’_

A quizzical voice spoke, responding quite casually to the rather alarming news of an unknown contaminant. “What kind of contamination is it Friday?” The sound of a tool being set onto a metal table rang across the room.

“Bodily fluid, sir. My floor scanners detect large counts of red blood cells.” There was a slight pause in the conversation as the person mulled over this information. “Friday run a scan and tell me where it is. And call a cleaner in here.”

Tony and Banner never tested on animals, so the appearance of blood in their lab was no doubt a red flag for whomever it was. “Yes, sir.”

Thor ducked slightly down as he heard footsteps making their way toward him. He didn’t intend on hiding behind a wall like a child, but he didn’t really want to be confronted. He could feel his injured hand shaking slightly, not out of fear but just a large amount of pain. He really needed to get to his room and wrap this stupid thing.

“The contaminant is located here, sir.” He heard the sound of a hologram appearing.

The footsteps again grew closer, and Thor had resigned to leaning against a strange looking metal structure. He had been in this lab long enough to know that protocol stated that everyone inside a contaminated space was locked in until they were cleared.

Which meant if he tried to walk through those doors, standing ten feet away, that he would set off more alarms than just wiping the blood onto the inside of his jacket and acting as if he had no idea where it had come from. Sighing he glanced down at his finger and counted the person’s footsteps. No doubt Tony would be pissed that there was blood on the floor. Mostly due to the inconvenience, although everyone knew it was more because he couldn’t just admit when he cared for someone.

“Oh. Hey, Thor, I didn’t hear you come in.”

Thor's stomach hit his throat. He felt a scream building up in his throat, it took all his power just to push it back into his chest. Acting as casual as he could physically manage, he turned around.

Banner was staring him with a slightly worried look.

“Are you alright?”

Heat rushed up his face, he felt like he was drowning. “Of course! Wh-why would I not be alright? I’m always alright!” The fake smile he had plastered onto his face fell as he stuttered over his words.

He bit back a grimace, squinting his good eye slightly.

_‘I. Am. The. Worst.’_

He crossed his arms and tucked his hand against his chest. It still throbbed. He must have really cut in deep for it to still be bleeding this heavily. Banner tilted his head and smiled. The scientist chuckled and Thor’s lungs just stopped working all together.

“You sure? You’re uh-” He nodded his head at the trail of blood droplets leading towards the god. “You’re still dripping.”

Thor glanced at the floor and sure enough, dark scarlet splatters ran across the ground sporadically. There was a gap in droplets a few feet away from where he had shoved his hand into his jacket, and now it was painfully obvious that he had done so.  _‘Say something. Anything to him. Make a joke or something, gods your just standing there staring at the ground.’_

The inside of his throat felt hot, and his chest felt tight. Nothing in his brain was working, all he could do was focus on the ground. He felt like he was teetering off a ledge.

Another droplet rolled off the top of his hand and onto his shoe. Banner glanced down, raising his eyebrows in slight surprise.

“Um. Can I…” He trailed off as he gestured to Thor’s right arm, where the hand was tucked tightly against his ribs. A small ribbon-like stream of blood had rolled down the side of his jacket, sparkling in the neon lights.

A solemn and almost shameful emotion rose into Thor’s chest. He felt like he was a child back on Asgard, injured in some ridiculous way, having to answer to his mother as to why. He doubted Banner would scold him the way Frigga did, but the apprehension was still present in his mind from so many years ago.

Slowly he shifted his right arm, releasing his opposite hand from its prison underneath. It ached in time with his pulse as he stretched it to Banner.

He stepped forward to observe it, tentatively reaching up and taking it in his hands. Thor could decide if he should pull away and try to convince Bruce that he was alright or just succumb to whatever situation presented itself.

Banner breathed in through his teeth, making a slight hissing noise as he turned Thor’s hand over to see the source of the bleeding. “Wow, this doesn’t look great. Uh-” He turned his shoulders to glance at a clear table behind him to his right. Quietly, he murmured to himself, “I don’t think I have any butterfly stitches in here.” He glanced up and smiled at him, and every muscle in his body tightened at once.

“Let’s sit over there and see if I can clean it up a little bit, I can’t really tell how bad it is through all the blood.”

He was so gentle, the way he handled Thor as if he were made out of glass. His fingers were light and meticulous, making sure to avoid scraping against any spots that would cause pain.

“O-Okay.” This was the second time in a day that Thor’s voice couldn’t have been his own. It was so nervous and quiet. Sounding nothing like a 1,500-year-old warrior god. He sounded like a teenager asking his crush to a royal ball.

Banner removed his hands and Thor suddenly felt cold. He looked down at his hand blankly. It still throbbed, but the way his chest felt really drew away from just how bad the injury was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait! Most college students say that homework is the problem but I just had trouble keeping the story concise. Hope it was good! New chapter out soon!


	5. How to Make a Suture and Interrogate a Suspect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Banner pieces things together, literally and figuratively

He sat him down quickly. He had a steady focus as he patched up the god’s wounded finger. It had been quiet for a noticeably long time before he spoke. 

“Hey- uh Thor, are you-” He tripped over his words as if they had formed and escaped him on their own. He furrowed his brow and gently placed a cotton swab onto the wound. “Are you alright?” 

 

“I’m always alri-” 

 

He was surprised to hear Banner interrupt him. 

“Yeah don’t bother lying, I’m not  _ that _ dumb.” His words bit into him and tore the defensiveness of out his body like a vulture feasting on the dead.

His cleaning suddenly became substantially more forceful. The tender nerves in his finger screaming as they were pressed upon. He winced but didn’t pull away. He watched as the man spoke without making any eye contact. It somehow made him feel worse than before.

Banner’s voice stabbed into him again. “First-” He gained an almost authoritative tone as he set down the cotton swab. “you start shocking random objects and lab equipment.” He leaned down and pulled open one of the metal drawers under the table. He set a roll of thick string and a curved piece of thin metal on the tabletop, it was a universally known object to fighters. 

 

His voice had a twinge of anger that seeped into Thor’s neck like venom. He felt guilt take him by the neck.

“Then you start shocking people and breaking things.” 

 

Thor had instinctively drawn his hand back towards himself, across the table. Little lacey blotches of green seemed to wrap around Banner’s neck. 

 

“Then it's the obsessive reading-” 

The scientist reached across the table and yanked his hand forward. Slamming it back onto the gauze patch he had made to keep the table clean. 

 

“And the nervous tendencies-” 

He grabbed curved metal and threaded it with an almost professional expertise. 

“And the power surges-” 

Suddenly the throbbing pain in his finger tripled tenfold. He bit back a grunt as he looked at Banner, who without warning, had started the first stitch. 

 

“And now you can’t even maintain eye contact.” 

He inserted the needle again back into the skin, getting a groan out of Thor. He clenched his other fist and gasped for air. His finger felt as if he had shoved it into a fire and then directly into ice. It wasn’t necessarily hot, but it wasn’t freezing cold either, it was a nightmarish middle ground of both temperatures. 

He avoided looking directly at Bruce. Instead, he found solace in staring at the spool of string across from him. 

“Just like now! What is going on with you?!”

He felt a hand wrap around his fist. Banner was staring at him. The god felt like he was going to keel over right then and there. He had to be trying to kill him, the way he glared so fiercely at him made Thor shrink into himself.  

 

“I-” He held his tongue for a moment. 

 

Every part of his brain wanted to scream. ‘ _ Gods why can’t I just say it. _ ’ 

But he wanted to. He wanted to grab Banner by the face and kiss him until his lips turned blue. It was embarrassing how much he liked him. 

 

“I’m sorry.” 

 

There was a small lull in Banner’s anger. The green spiderwebs seemed to sink back down under the surface of his skin. He seemed hurt. 

 

“Why are you apologizing?” 

His voice was so soft and vulnerable.

 

But he had always been like that. Trusting and kind even to someone like Thor. A murderous god who had killed thousands of brave warriors, not including the enemies that actually deserved it.

Banner looked at the world with such trust. 

It often reminded him that he wasn’t born into the hero role. He wasn’t like Roger’s or Stark who had chosen to keep the roles they had dawned so many years ago. Before he became the Hulk he was just a normal man, a proud and intelligent scientist, but still a mere man. The rest of the group had an air of mild distrust between them that hung over them like a cloud. Banner, though, he seemed to love everyone so genuinely. 

 

Thor felt the man gently squeeze his hand. His stomach was immediately in his throat. His breathing quickened and his chest ached. 

He felt hot and every normal thought was burned to a crisp as he felt his face become red.

 

“I’m just worried. None of what's happening has any rhyme or reason.” Banner spoke as if he couldn’t see Thor turning scarlet. He hoped that maybe it wasn’t really happening. 

There was a sickening feeling of dread that he felt as he watched the man speak. 

He was too smart to not figure it out. Especially if he’d been observing him for longer than a day. 

 

Although he could tell he was furious, Banner let out a frustrated laugh. 

“You know, I’ve even asked the others and they can barely remember your powers running wild outside of the lab, or a group setting. I just don’t understand how those two are connected?” 

Bruce had picked the suture needle back up and was pulling the other two stitches tight. Thor’s heartbeat was so loud he was worried he wasn’t hearing properly. 

 

“I mean really-” He glanced up to look Thor in his blue eye, the real one. No doubt just noticing the heat radiating out of the god’s face. 

 

Thor couldn’t even remember the last time he fancied someone this way or even blushed. Sure, he had had his time with Jane, but they had a much different and much more perilous relationship. 

But this man made him understand why they say “Picture Perfect”

Even in the worst of situations he still felt for Bruce the way he always had. 

 

“I just can’t figure out the common factor.” 

He inserted the needle again, a centimeters away from the last. This time Thor squeezed his fist harder and let out a small gasp.

“Somehow they’ve only seen it once or twice, but I’ve seen your little episodes at least a dozen times.” Banner scoffs at the thought and pulls the string taut. “No one else has been alone to see them, except-”

Suddenly the man goes very still. His eyes are still trained on the string in his hands, but his mind is so obviously elsewhere. Thor’s breath is suddenly so heavy that he can’t even force it one way or the other. The air just sits there stagnant in the middle of his torso like a rock. 

 

“Wait why hasn’t anyone else-” He mutters and tilts his head. His brown, curly hair twisting and falling around his face. “Why is it just me?” He looks up again to Thor.

Everything feels numb, as he fights the urge to grip him by the shoulders and kiss him then and there. He would never, but he still wants to. Badly.

 

“I-” 

For the first time in minutes, Thor speaks. The voice that repeats his thoughts is not correct. The anxiety of being found out is enough to buckle any royal history that had left a mark on him previously. No confidence was present. And it was painfully obvious when the normally timid man across from him interrupted him again.

“So it's me! Do you hate me? Am I that annoying that your body just fucking repels me?”

 

Bruce was joking but a wave of anger started to bubble up in Thor’s throat. He had been red hot beforehand, but this comment- this  _ questioning _ had taken an insulting turn, leaving him cold and collected. It would have been refreshing, had it not been under these circumstances.

 

“I would never- I could never hate you, Banner.”

 

He felt a twinge of pain seep into his angry voice, his words ending in a slightly higher key made him blush slightly. 

 

Banner sighs and settles back into his seat. Taking the string he had, at some point, dropped. He rests his hand gently onto the rest of Thor’s fingers to get a better angle on the suture. 

His face is surprisingly mournful for what had just happened. 

“If it’s not hate-” He pulls the string forward and slips the needle back into the finger to complete the third stitch. The injury and the skin surrounding it had since become numb, and Thor had adjusted well enough that he didn’t let out a sound. “Then what is making you act so nervous around me?” 

 

Thor’s heart skipped so many beats he thought he might be actually dying. It felt like centuries before he could fight his way into breathing again. 

Banner was the smartest man he had ever met, and he realized then, in that moment, that he would figure it out. 

All the circumstances and the evidence showed his feelings, he had never been one for subtly but he wished that he had taken a page from Rogers. That man could spend hours speaking with the long-haired man on one of Stark’s tablets and no one would even question it. 

 

But Thor was not Steve Rogers, he could never be Steve Rogers. He was just a god. 

And right now that god was about to be thrown into the least appetizing situation he could think of. 

 

He felt the heat start to bleed into his face again. His breathing was fast and uncomfortably shallow. 

He watched in silent horror as Banner thought through the options. Any possible reason was filtered through and broken down until he could find a proper one. 

 

Suddenly he squinted, furrowing his brow as he debated the last of the reasons. The fleeting but most accurate thought then formed in his mind. He could tell because it ran across his face in stages. 

Realization, skepticism, and then some nearly unreadable mix of fear and disbelief. 

 

For some reason, Thor’s heart sunk low. He felt the onset of exhaustion. ‘ _ It's probably because you’re bleeding out in the hands of your crush _ .’ 

 

Some bitter voice spoke loudest in his mind. He knew there was no reason to feel let down, ‘ _ You knew what you were getting into. One or two semi-flirtatious moments don’t make it love.’  _ His eyes felt heavy, and he fought to keep his face neutral as he watched the man across from him figure him out. 

 

“Wait Thor do you-” Banner’s eyes flickered between him and the suture. His voice wavering in confusion. 

Thor closed his eyes as his heart throbbed. There was no way, from how the man was speaking, that he was accepting of Thor’s feelings. He scrunched his face down as heat rose in his eyes. He hadn’t cried in months. But this was almost enough. 

 

“Don’t.” He manages to keep his voice steady, even as his heart hits the floor. He can’t bring himself to look him in the eye. 

 

“I’m just asking Thor do you or do you not like-”

He grips his uninjured hand tightly and throws it onto the surface of the table. Making a loud enough sound to stop the man for a moment. The pool of string rattles against the metal loudly. 

“Please...Banner, please just don’t.” His voice cracks slightly, and his lungs refuse to aid in his speaking, so he has to force last words out before he runs out of air. He waits for a moment, praying for some alarm to go off or someone to walk in. But the seconds pass and nothing happens. 

 

“You’re good to go.” Banner’s tone is almost devastatingly casual. He pats, Thor’s other hand as he places a small roll of bandaging on the table. “I assume you know how to wrap it yourself. So I’ll let you be on your way.” He stands, pushing out of the chair with a loud scraping noise.

And then, just like that, he’s gone. Walking away from the table and back into the depths of the lab. 

Some loud part of him wanted to march back up to the man and grip his wrists. Scream how much he’s thought about him being his. He wanted to hold him like no one else existed. He wanted so much. Greed was the one enemy Thor had never bested. It followed him like a shadow on the floor.

 

But he didn’t race back to Bruce. Instead, he gripped the roll of bandages he had been handed and walked to his room. And there he stayed, for hours, reading one of the many books that littered the floor. Tensing at any movement outside his door. 

  
The hallway his door sat in wasn’t particularly trafficked but with the preparation for the Manhattan Children’s Ball underway, people found a way to be noisy. 

He had no interest in going and had been very clear that he was not to be disturbed during that night. That he would be in his room and that unless Thanos himself stepped into the ballroom in a 3 piece suit, he would not be attending the evening’s events. 

 

He sat on the edge of his bed, one knee bobbing up and down at a sporadically rhythmed pace. He thought bitterly about the ballroom. Natasha had teased him yesterday about Banner going. 

“All those pretty girls and boys dressed to impress, hopefully, no one swoops in to be his date before the end of the night.”

He had just smiled politely, although the image had soured it immensely, and he felt it curl into a grimace. She raised her eyebrow as he silently flipped the page in the worn novella’s spine, burning the corner of it slightly. She left the conversation there and had sauntered back into the kitchen, leaving him to file the discussion into his brain forever. 

A bitter taste rose in his mouth now as he rubbed his eyes blearily. He glanced at the clock on the plain metal nightstand beside his bed. It was slightly early to go to sleep, but who would care. Maybe he would beat Rogers to the training room in the morning.  _ ‘Yeah, that’s highly unlikely. I doubt he sleeps.’  _

And with that, he threw himself under the blankets haphazardly. For a few minutes, he laid there staring at the ceiling. Sleeping had been rather difficult for the past few months, so this wasn’t unusual. He felt a twinge in his temples as he willed a storm front into existence. 

Knowing full well that he would be scolded by Rhodey in the morning for “fucking with the weather forecasts for no good reason.” 

“Whatever.” He mumbled, allowing his muscles to relax as the thundering sounds washed over him. 


	6. The One Where Bruce Narrates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce narrates this one.

Bruce Banner had never made sprinting a hobby of his. His heart pounded loudly against his sternum, making a delightfully horrible thumping sound radiate in his ears.

His feet slammed against the tile floors of the lab harshly. Well, at least it would have been deafening if his heart wasn’t the only thing he could comprehend.

Sure he was terrified of the screaming coming from down the corridor, but his heart had been in hyper drive since Thor had turned red almost 3 hours ago.

He was a little nervous, initially, that he was having some kind of stroke or heart attack. But his blushing had persisted long after Thor had retreated into his room. His palms still slightly slick, making holding glass tubes extremely difficult. There had been a moment, he’ll admit, when he had gotten a little too excited about Thor confessing. His mind had started to buzz slightly at the thought of being able to just  _ say _ it. To finally feel like he wasn’t waiting alone for him to come around.

_ ‘Jesus that man’s going to be the death of me.’ _

Eventually, after avoiding thinking about what had just happened, he managed to force himself back into his normal rhythm. 

 

Tony had strolled in sometime after 4, carrying a glass of whiskey and a tablet in his hands. 

“I almost had him.” Banner had said, a smile spread across his face. As much as he tried to hide it, he couldn’t contain himself fully. He looked surprised as he set down the glass and opened the file. “Wow. I never thought I’d see the day.” He chuckled and started gathering his supplies.

 

“So what happened?” A familiar heat curled up his shoulders and neck. He squeezed his fist once and allowed it to relax. “He uh, sliced his finger on the glass from earlier and tried to cut through the lab to get to his room. But of course Friday kind of stopped him for me.” He felt a fond smile form on his face as he observed the new nanoparticles under the microscope. They mimicked his insides as they moved and swirled around the small glass rectangle. Tony made a sound that told to keep talking, he obliged. “Then I sewed him up, and pretended I had just realized that he _ might _ like me.” 

 

His smile faltered slightly as he pondered on the events that followed what he was describing. 

 

Tony wasn’t always a perceptive man, but he was certainly well versed in Bruce’s mannerisms. He noticed the change in demeanor immediately. “And? What happened next?” 

He paused for a little too long. The silence hung in the air with a melancholy mood.

 

“Ah he-” He forced himself to breathe, exhaling with a sort of strange laugh. “He didn’t confirm it fully.” He squinted slightly, his mouth turning up in an almost grimace. “He just asked me to stop.” Tony set the glass on the table the dark amber liquid sloshing up near the top of the glass. Turning to him as he raised an eyebrow, “Like to stop the stitching or to stop prying into his love life?” 

A soft smile still remained on his face, but his eyes betrayed him. Thor had been so...mournful. It was shocking how heartbroken he had looked. It made him feel almost guilty for not asking him sooner. The cruelty of his actions truly set in at that moment. “I think both.” His voice was ragged, his words scraping the inside of his throat with their weight. He couldn’t help but question why. Why was he sad about him finding out? 

 

Now, racing down the hallway behind the lab, he had nothing to focus on but the screams.

They had just started, but they were loud enough that they raised the hair on Banner’s arms. The small needle-like prickling sensation rose up his arms and down his legs, making the chill air on his skin feel more like ice. 

Most of the shouts were pleads, “ _ Please _ ! Let him go-” and “No  _ don’t- _ ” were repeated in varying degrees of volume and phrasing.

He stopped in his tracks when he reached Thor’s door. “Of course.” No doubt he reliving the events of Thanos’s attack on the Asgardians. 

When they had reunited in Wakanda, he had stopped him.

 

He had grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into himself. For a second, Thor had just stood there, stiff and unfeeling. But something in him gave way, and he slumped defeatedly downward, gripping Banner’s back as he shook. He didn’t have to look at him to tell that he was sobbing into his ragged sweater. Their conversations had been small after that.

Quieted whisperings between burdened souls, with hands wrapped in each other and warm but mournful smiles worn to cover their conversations. They could talk every day but never say anything meaningful. Unfortunately, Bruce had never been able to pry the end of Thor’s first encounter with Thanos out of the god. 

 

He lifted a hand to knock, but the screams were still going strong. Gently, he opened his balled fist and let it rest on the metal. The cold surface leaching into his hands and sinking down his wrists. It was comforting, in some aspect, to remember that he was real and existed in this moment in time and space.

He flinched at the pained scream that bled through the bottom of the metal wall. “No  _ please _ -” The worst part about night terrors was how unpredictable they are. The person, or god in this case, can’t control it. Often they can’t even remember it.  “No n _ o no please don’t _ -”

Bruce didn’t even question Thor’s emotional state. The amount of grief he must be constantly feeling would be alien to him, but the night terrors were something they could both attest to experiencing. “Don’t-don’t, don’t, don’t-  _ please _ .” His voice cracked slightly with the last word, tearful and panicked in the silence of the space beyond the door.

There was a sickly feeling in his stomach. He waited there for what felt like hours, eventually, he heard fabric being thrown across the room and then heavy breathing from the opposite side of the door. Again, he brought his hand up, rapping his knuckles against the metal frame harshly. 

There was quiet murmuring from inside the room, and then the door slid open.

 

Looking at Thor took his breath away. Even now, with a sweat-soaked shirt and messy hair, he still made something in Banner scream. He was heaving, his shoulders rising up and down jaggedly. His hand still hovering shakily over the open button beside the door. 

He looked exhausted, even after sleeping. The last year’s events had aged him severely.

Banner jumped slightly when Thor reached up and rubbed his good eye blearily. “S-sorry you were uh-” He glanced at his feet habitually, his voice habitually giving him away. Watching as he swayed from foot to foot anxiously. “You were screaming again.” The god sighed and scratched the back of his neck. Grumbling something in Norse and then finally saying, “Sorry.” 

It was a plain and gruff answer. But the guilt wrapped around it struck Banner’s heart. 

He gave him a sad smile. “It’s not your fault I was just worried.”

“Thanks. For uh- you know- caring. I guess.”

His stomach dropped when Thor kept his gaze trained on the floor. It was dark enough that he couldn’t tell if he had started blushing, but he was physically nervous. 

 

They stood there awkwardly for a small moment before Thor cleared his throat, “Would you- would you like to come in?” He motioned emptily to the blackness behind him. Banner furrowed his brow. “I don’t want to make you any more uncomfortable.” He smiled, gently rubbing his arm. 

“Nonsense. You’ve never made me uncomfortable. I’m surprised it’s not the other way around honestly.” Thor said, a small confident smile making him squint slightly. His blue eye sparkling with the reflection of the metal walls across from him. The other was making a near-silent whirring as he focused his gaze squarely on the man’s shoulders. Banner let out a dry laugh, letting it warp into a scoff as it ran through him. 

 

“I think the you from the 3 hours ago would say differently.” 

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Thor raised the unscarred eyebrow in mild surprise. A definite pink rising to the surface of his cheeks, even in the dark of the night. Banner’s guilt tripled instantly, his stomach flipping into his lungs painfully. His wit had betrayed him and left to rot in this horrible moment. 

 

Heat boils into this neck and face, rising to his eyes which burn with a pang of obvious guilt. He throws his hand up and claps it over his mouth, hearing the words he’s just said for the first time. 

There’s a bitter quiet in Thor’s voice as he speaks, a mournful solemness that makes Bruce’s hands shake. 

“Come in, let’s talk.”

He swings his uninjured hand in once again, motioning to the dark room behind him. 

He doesn’t speak, he just nods and follows Thor back inside.

 

Once he was well within the room, the god fumbled. Groping the wall for a few seconds before his fingers trace the small thin difference between the smooth metal of the wall, and the touch screen that controls the interior mechanics of the space. 

The soft scrape of his skin against the slightly textured bar was somewhat calming. He moved two fingered skillfully up, allowing the lights to turn on and raise to an appropriate brightness, but still leaving the room dim enough that Banner had to guess at the names of the books littering the shelves. 

He became aware of how hot he felt. ‘ _ Strange...No known external temperature changes. _ ’ He stood there, awkwardly in the center of the room, just observing the organized chaos that surrounded him. He turned slightly, at glanced at Thor who was fixing his bed. The muscles in his shoulders tensed when he scraped his injured hand against the underside of the bed frame. His shirt rode up his back when he reached down with his good hand to attempt to fix the sheet again. Banner felt his breath hitch slightly, the air in his lungs turning solid and leaving him to fight for oxygen. ‘ _ God I could tear that back apart. _ ’ Heat coursed up his stomach and into his lungs with the repercussion of that thought.

He wasn’t entirely sure when he had started feeling like this. Sometime on Sakaar, or maybe a little earlier on but, he’d been mildly aware for a small while. The intrusive thoughts about taking clothes off were slightly newer and substantially more alarming. They weren’t wrong but there was a problem with them. 

He shouldn’t be feeling them.

At all. 

 

Thor was a  _ god _ , a leader of an entire race, a praised warrior who deserved an equally powerful and worthy partner to support him. Bruce would never serve as anything more than a pitiful sidekick. 

The first few times he had processed this, it was a painful realization. It was wrong, to want love from something so vastly different than yourself. You do not ask for the stars to stay past the sunrise. For Forget-me-nots to wish on you.

Just as you do not ask a god to love a mortal. A tiny, insignificant spec in the span of the universe does not deserve to be loved by a solar system. 

The mere fact that Thor had tricked himself into liking him was somewhat intoxicating. Sometimes at night, instead of normal thoughts, it was Thor’s blue eyes shining back at him in his mind, hanging on his every word. His strong and scarred arms pulling him in close, his warm body pressing perfectly into his. 

 

Those nights were always when his brain proved most...  _ troublesome _ .

 

He was flattered, to say the least, but he was also a man of reason. These feelings couldn’t persist, they just weren’t ethically sound. The utter shame that seemed to follow him was enough to keep his emotions at bay. 

Maybe tonight he could convince Thor to let it go. 

 

But Thor had other plans in mind, apparently. 

He sat himself down on the bed, settling calmly into the, now neatly arranged, sheets. The air seemed to shift slightly, everything becoming suddenly pressurized. Like a storm was forming above them. 

Lightly, he patted the spot next to him, beckoning Bruce to sit next to him. 

 

And so he did, settling down in a similar fashion to his companion. 

 

There was about half a foot of space between them, the instinct of sitting so far away was newly learned. 

Like some unsaid rule that demanded to be followed, to never cross that half foot. The distance, in hindsight, seemed minuscule. But they had spent most of the following weeks after Thanos’s snap nearly inseparable. This black hole, this void was painful. 

It stabbed into his chest and stung his eyes. His whole body felt tight and ached like he was coming down with the flu. 

He felt the sadness that often followed the implications of that space. Those few inches were the difference between hope and heartbreak, and he was balancing on the ledge waiting for one to pull him over it. 

The two of them were like planets orbiting a black hole. If either of them decided to shift into that dark hole, they both would be sucked into a mistake. 

 

Tension wracked his body as he waited for something to happen. Maybe an alarm would sound, or someone would call him on the radio. Asking him to come back to the lab or to go to bed. 

Thor leaned forward, the white t-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders until it was almost translucent. 

_ ‘God I want that thing off of him-’  _

_ ‘Stop it.’ _

The god rested his elbows on the tops of his thighs, letting his hand rub his good eye tiredly. 

“So-” 

Bruce jumped slightly, even though the other’s voice was painstakingly gentle. 

“When I was younger- much younger, I was told I was going to rule one day.” 

A small, almost wistful smile rested on his face as he spoke, making Banner’s ears burn. He watched as Thor took a deep breath as if bracing himself for some unseen force. “But- I never truly realized the gravity of that fact until I watched Asgard burn.” 

The bed creaked slightly under him as he shifted up, stretching his back out. He continued to stare ahead, never letting Banner see the full majesty of his exhaustion.

“Of course I understood in some way when I was younger that there would be sacrifices. My father was old, and Heimdal did what he thought was best. But in less than a week I lost everything.” 

The smile had faded somewhere in between the mention of his father and his last few words. 

 

A pang ricocheted in his chest, rattling his ribs and making his lungs sear like hot iron. He felt the sadness in those words stretch across the bed and try to pull him in. 

“My home, my friends-” He looked down at his hands, the small raised scars that were scattered across his fingers seemed so minuscule in this moment. “My brother.” 

Bruce’s breath hitched slightly. Thor had refused to speak for months about what had happened on the ship, only giving a summary of what he knew Banner had been present for. But now he was really going to tell him. He honestly felt sick to his stomach as he realized that it was actually happening. 

 

“And for all the years that I was shaped into a proper heir, I had never been able to imagine ruling without him. Just as a brother, not even as a royal.”

 

Banner squeezed his eyes shut, letting his words hang in the air for a moment. Slowly he lifted his hand and stretched it through that black hole. It landed softly onto Thor’s. 

 

A shiver ran up his spine, making his hair stand on end. The god didn’t pull away, but instead left his eyes on the ground, dragging them sullenly back and forth across the disheveled mess below. 

Thor lifted his hand slightly and laced his fingers into the others. Pressing his thumb against the back of Bruce’s hand and sweeping it across the soft skin gently.

Banner realized too late that he was seeing stars as his stomach dropped into his legs. His heart slammed against his eardrums with newfound aggression.

 

“After Heimdal activated the Bifrost and sent you away, Thanos’ lackey managed to render me immobile.” A bitter taste washed down the back of his throat as Thor spoke. He gripped his hand a little tighter as the familiar heartache bloomed in the space between his stomach and his lungs. 

“And he-” There was a painful trepidation in his words as he actively formed them, one after the other. “He killed Loki.” 

It was curt. And horribly fast. 

It felt like a bullet had lodged into the space between his collar bones. Everything sunk into a slow clock-like pace. Like time had fallen to the same rhythm as his heartbeat. 

Every word was placed so specifically and hurt with each syllable. 

Bruce blinked, letting the last of the connotations set in. 

His first instinct was to apologize. To utter a melancholy ‘I’m sorry’ that meant almost nothing. 

Memories of losing his family and hearing thousands of variations of that same phrase had warped his instincts. He refused to apologize for something that he knew he couldn’t control. 

 

“He’s gone and I couldn’t stop it.”

He spat the words out so quickly, it was almost hard to decipher if he was sad or furious. 

Banner squeezed his hand again, lacing his fingers in tighter. 

“I’m here. If you-you know,” He glanced up to Thor, a heat searing across his cheeks. 

“Ev-ever want to talk.” 

Thor had a bittersweet air about him as he glanced down at their hands. “Thanks.”

 

For a few minutes, they just sat, taking in the sound of the rain and the wind outside. 

“Hey. Thor listen-” He felt him shift on the slightly disheveled mattress. 

“I think you should go tomorrow.” They locked eyes for a moment, the shockingly blue iris gleaming brightly. He swore he could almost see the storm clouds rolling across the sky deep within it. 

Thor tilted his chin to the side slightly, like a golden puppy reacting to a new noise. 

He let out a small scoff-like laugh, “To the Children’s Ball. You should go.” A smile crept onto his face as he spoke, the rush of emotion that came with imagining the god in a suit seemed to render him useless. 

A similar smile grew on Thor’s face, although it was a little more subtle and contained. 

“Sure.” 


	7. The Manhattan Children’s Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After agreeing to go, Thor realizes his and Banner’s interactions have become the press’s main focus.

The hall that Stark had booked was magnificently large, golden decorative lights sparkled in the dark night sky. Thor felt a pang of homesickness as he gazed over the crowd from the car. Even from the outside, the building had many similarities to the Asgardian architecture he had grown up with. 

The flashing of cameras seemed to suddenly become overwhelming as the limo they were seated in pulled up to the overly glamorous red carpet that had been splayed over the stairway. 

 

Tony had been seated next to him, and had been nearly silent the entire time. The only thing that assured the god that he was still alive was the rapid bobbing of his leg as he occasionally crushed the small rubber ball he had in his hands. It felt a little foreboding that the man who normally never stopped talking had suddenly decided to be mute for the 45 minute ride back into the city. Although, without Miss Potts, he had been forced to orchestrate this event by himself. He had even joked about missing his CEO, which had forced a new mood to rise into the group he was with at the time. A weird bitter taste in everyone’s mouths as they eyed the gold ring on his finger wearily. 

 

He jumped slightly when the door at the end of the vehicle opened with a loud click and the strange sound of plastic peeling off plastic resonated through the cabin. Trying to rub the tenseness out, he gripped his fabric covered arm tightly. 

Natasha was already outside, her platinum blonde hair tied back rather elegantly to match the silver ball gown that swept across her shoulders and fell perfectly against her. 

Ducking down to avoid a head injury, he slipped as gracefully as he could outside. Immediately there were shouts and bright flashes surrounding him. 

_ Odin’s beard- I already hate this… _

Grimacing, he felt someone hook their arm around his waist. Everything tensed instinctually, his hand falling to meet theirs with a nervous caution. His face was very warm as his mind made some conclusions. “Hey relax a little, you look like you’re going to keel over any second now.” 

He recognized her voice immediately, the learned American accent almost too perfect to be real. She gave him a cold, but sentimentally kind smile as she basically lead him into his least favorite social setting. She leaned in slightly, a bleached strand of hair falling, “Have you heard from Bruce today?” It was accusatory and slightly suggestive. As if she knew that they had talked, but took it to a more sexual level than it was. He felt his ears burn. 

The knowledge that he would have to at least speak to Banner made his legs heavy. His stomach tightened as he felt his breathing quicken, “No.” He turned his head to the side, avoiding her gaze as a warm feeling spread in his face. She chuckled as he observed the nearest photographer’s large camera, which blinked sporadically as it captured small bits of the target’s personality with each little flash. It was an odd sight to behold, but he was pulled from it suddenly when the arm around his waist pushed into him, forcing him to stumble forward. “Come on big guy, let’s get you in there.” She patted him on the chest with her unoccupied arm and forced him gently towards the doors. 

Thor was a strong fighter, and a semi-intelligent being, but he knew that when someone was more experienced, it was better to follow than to lead. So that’s exactly what he did, observing the atmosphere with a wary eye. 

As they trudged through the crowded entrance, he noticed three things at once. 

The first was the quiet and less boisterous sound emitting from a far corner, the classical music that made him think of cold mead and warm meat on a hot summer’s evening, the fire crackling in a bright yellow against the dark black of the Asgardian night sky. 

The second was the couples in complicated and elegant dress weaving through each other to the beats of the music, smiling their quiet smiles as if they had nothing to think of except for the pleasantries of this moment. Murmuring to each other pleasantly as they whisked across the polished floor, washed in the warm lights of the night. 

 

The third was what pushed him over the edge, his nerves finally smacking him on the back of the neck. Their venom seeping into his arms, making his hands shake with a newfound aggression.  

Standing within a group of nicely suited men and women was Dr. Banner. He standing slightly outside of the circle, a fake smile plastered above his chin, no doubt hiding the frown that would naturally form on his face. He was trying, with some difficulty, to focus on the person speaking across from him. A younger woman with copper hair and paler skin that spoke with a large, theatrical confidence that felt somewhat insincere. Although no one in the group noticed, Thor spied a small furry face peering at him from inside her jacket pocket. He shrugged it off, his anxiousness making it difficult to process how odd that would be in the situation. 

His eyes drifted back to Bruce, who was now staring off into space. He would nod slightly when someone would ask a question, or chuckle at a joke, but his focus was somewhere else entirely. His hair was brushed back and gelled slightly, giving him a more organized and bachelor-esque appearance. It was odd to see him in anything other than a plain dress shirt and jeans, but the view wasn’t unwelcome. The suit he had chosen was a deep navy blue, and fit tightly against his shoulders and waist, the golden cufflinks glittering brightly against the dark fabric of his sleeves. 

He gazed around the rest of the ballroom, trying to mask his interest in case some wandering eye put the pieces together, but no matter how hard he tried to gather what was around him, he couldn’t keep himself together. Every moment he spent looking away from Banner was another moment wasted on convincing himself that it wasn’t happening. That they were just friends, and that Banner would never want this. 

The music is the background changed slightly, the singer standing on the stage in the distance had gained a partner. Their harmonies flowing in the air as the candlelit room filled with more people. They gathered at the corners of the dance floor, waiting for an opening to join the other dancing couples that were spinning and dipping to the song. The slow and steady beat of the piano paired with the melancholy voices sent a cold shiver up his spine. Banner was now staring in his direction. 

It occurred to him, then, that he was still standing in the middle of the entering guests, the flashing of cameras suddenly warning him that he had created a minor scene. He glanced back at the group to find his scientist had disappeared. 

He twisted on his heel slightly, trying to find his shorter target amongst the sea of party-goers was proving to be a difficult task. 

For a few terrifying moments he frantically gripped at his suit cuffs, hoping to still his raging heart as he observed the treacherous ground before him. 

A small tug of the fabric on his elbow made him jump. 

Turning haphazardly to the source, he felt his heart leap against his rib cage painfully. A smile automatically forming as he laid his eyes on the other’s features. Soft and worn from years of turmoil, but glossed by excitement in the moment. The gold light highlighting the best parts of him in one bright sweep. 

“Thor-“ The grin he felt on his face grew wider as the other spoke. “Banner. How are you?” The pleasantries he was trying to so obviously force into the beginning of their conversation fell on deaf ears as his scientist plowed through his sentence. “You’re actually here!”

A small pink tint rose in his cheeks as he realized he had just interrupted him rather obnoxiously. “Sorry I-“ Thor’s brain short circuited as he tried to bypass the blatantly adorable behavior. “You are completely fine, I apologize for being so uncordial as to speak before you finished.” He bowed his head slightly as his royal manners swept him into old habits.  _ ‘A little aggressive on the courting language, slow down’  _

He lifted his gaze back to Banner, who was looking at him in awe. He felt slightly as though he was a zoo animal, being observed this intimately. 

“You look great.” 

This compliment caught him by surprise, a heat rising up his neck. “Thanks.” He paused to observe Bruce’s formal wear once more from a better vantage point. Gold embroidered patterns traced up his forearms from the sleeves of his jacket, starting at the cufflinks that matched the color perfectly. It compliments his eyes rather nicely, bringing the ambers and greens out against the darks of the suit. 

He tried to force himself to breathe again, just one breath at a time, find the rhythm and repeat. 

“You look  _ amazing _ .”

He kicked himself internally for saying that.  _ ‘Idiot. Love struck idiot.’  _  He said it so breathlessly and so painfully earnest. It was the only thing he was absolutely sure of in that moment. Banner-  _ his Banner _ \- looked incredible. He always looked incredible, but with this light, in this moment, there was nothing that could keep him from staring. 

 

The pink on Bruce’s face deepened slightly as he looked away, eyeing the camera flashes warily. He stepped towards him, closing the space between them quickly. 

“Careful, there’s more press than normal tonight, because of what’s happened.” He paused for a moment, a wicked smile spreading across his face. The mischievous glint in his eyes was a slight warning as he leaned in and looked up, ever closer to him. Their faces nearly touching as he spoke, “Watch this-“ He reached down, quickly, with one deliberate and calculated movement, he swept Thor’s hand into his own. 

Thor felt like he was going to melt right there, the feeling of their fingers intertwining nearly knocking him down for the count. 

Suddenly the noise of camera shutters grew louder, making him turn to glance at the photographers that had suddenly become much closer. 

No doubt trying to pry their way into the conversation with breaking any laws. 

He looked back at Banner, who was watching them with a certain scientific interest. The small wrinkles on his forehead showing just how focused he was in gauging their behavior. 

He felt his heart sink slightly.  _ ‘This was all just for show. To force his subject into action, so he can watch.’  _

The corners of his eyes burned as he noticed that they were still holding hands. Neither willing to let go. Thor squeezed it lightly, effectively gaining the other’s attention once more. He wanted to be the only one Banner observed tonight. No one else. 

He gave him another warm smile and pulled him closer, tightening his grip and pulling his arm back, forcing their chests to nearly touch. Raising an eyebrow he leaned in, tilting his head so his lips nearly brushed his scientist’s right ear. “Would you be so kind-“ He threw a rather flirtatious glance at the press that had stepped closer to them. “As to dance with me?” 

 

The question hung for a moment as he felt the other’s sharp inhale. He doubted the answer would be-

“Yes.” 

He was shocked to say the least. Banner was so sure. Nodding with a smile that made Thor’s head spin. 

Again he had to force his confidence back to the surface, leaning back in, he chuckled. 

“Fantastic.” He took a small step back and hooked his arm into the others, their hands still warm from their own heat. 

Externally, he exuded a confidence that was frail, and obviously fake. 

But internally he was already falling apart. His breath would hitch at any movement Banner would make, any smile or moment of eye contact as they made their way to the dance floor. A small twinge of bitterness seeped into his heart, knowing full well that this action could ruin Banner’s reputation. 

He had never truly understood the stigma against couples of the same sex, but Midgardians were very set in their ways, unlike how blasé Asgardians were about such relations. The throne had seen many same sex royal relationships in its time, and none had been the cause of any lost lives or ruin. 

But for Banner to decide to dance with him- he might as well have just released a statement on his sexuality to the papers. Even though they weren’t a couple, it was still risky.

Nevertheless, the human was dragging Thor by the arm onto the dance floor. Turning to look at him on occasion to make sure he hadn’t lost him in the process. 

Thor forced himself to swallow his nerves, if they were under watch, they should try to at least make it entertaining. 

Once they had found a spot as the most recent song had come to an end, he stepped in front of Banner. Holding a hand out to him, and waiting for the other to take it. 

Bruce stood for a moment, processing the motion with a puzzled look on his face. Finally he realized what he needed to do and reached down to grasp Thor’s. 

Gently, he brought his hand to sit on the top of his shoulder, and laced his fingers into the other. A calm had settled over the crowd as they gathered themselves before the next song. 

He felt dizzy as the music began again, his heart beating in time like a drummer of war. Fighting against himself to keep even a small distance between himself and Banner. Fighting to control. Fighting  _ for _ control. 

The fingers on his shoulder tapped in rhythm, making him smile. 

Bruce was staring at the floor, his brow furrowed in quiet resignation as he fought to move his feet properly. The couples around them were murmuring to each other, small laughs or silly pick-up lines. But neither the scientist nor the god spoke. 

The quiet complicitness washed over both of them. 

The bright blue light cast on the floor lit Banner up so beautifully, making something sing in the god. 

To Thor, it felt like they did this everyday, waltzing around the kitchen of a cabin somewhere to tunes they both knew every word of. Humming along as they bounced and twirled through the rooms of the place they shared. A cozy golden glow covering the image, glossing over it like a mirror. 

 

“Uh Thor?” The voice was tentative as the hand on his shoulder gripped itself deeply into the fabric. 

He opened his eyes, blinking in the bright lights. Turning his head to the side, he noticed that no one was around them anymore. It was odd to go from such a crowded place to a suddenly empty one. The sound of worried talking and gasps drifted into his ears. 

He glanced to Banner, who was looking at him. There was a peculiar glimmer in his eyes, as if fear and amazement had been mixed together and poured into his irises. 

He tilted his head slightly, knitting his eyebrows together. “What’s wrong?”

Bruce pulled himself into Thor more, grasping at him desperately, his breath becoming shaky. “Hey- hey it's alright- what’s wrong?” Thor murmured wrapping one arm around his waist protectively. 

His scientist glared at him as he spoke, sending a painful twinge up his spine. 

 

“We are floating in the  _ air _ , Thor.”


	8. Rippled Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce Banner, who would continue to struggle with a Jeckle-Hyde complex for another two years before eventually realizing that the only stable solution would be to combine the best parts of themselves together, shook in fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the shorter chapter- Endgame like really wrecked me so my recovery time has cut into my writing time somewhat.

This was new. To Bruce at least.

Floating had never been one of the many gifts that chronic radioactivity had given him. And they weren’t flying technically, that much was pretty obvious. The air was still around them, other than the occasional breeze that swept past. 

 

They had just started dancing, an innocent gesture between...friends.

 

Even as simple as the waltz was, he still struggled to move in time. He was honestly too distracted watching the god the with a hand on his waist. 

He looked incredible, smiling and humming along to the lower harmony in the song that was wafting through the air. Perfect pitch was another talent he could add to the list of things he excelled at.

 

He was honestly beautiful.

 

Only a few seconds of struggling passed before he managed to get the hang of the pattern, and suddenly they were whirling through the other dancers in perfect synchrony. One step forward, a step back towards him, a step to the side, spin, repeat.  

The music had picked up tempo slightly as the two singers began to belt in harmony, Thor looking up from his focus to blink in the candlelight. 

This felt right. And  _ real _ . Nothing else had to make sense, except for them, here and now. Even as they stepped to the side, Thor pulling him in tighter to spin again. The glittering blue sparks in the distance falling onto the floor like rain against the damp earth. 

 

Another step. Banner couldn’t help but laugh as Thor grinned, his bright mismatched eyes wide with excitement. He could feel a calmness wash over him that he hadn’t felt in years. For the first time since the accident, he felt like he was okay. 

_ ‘God your cute’  _

He just felt so...weird. Every time his throat clenched with nerves and whatever overwhelming infatuation was swimming around in his brain, he felt something else start bubbling up to the surface. 

 

Shame. 

 

Like a fun stab to his side, it found its way into every damn thing he ever enjoyed. Taking its rightful place at the forefront of his brain. His mind dragging out small bits of tabloids claiming a scandalous relationship between two men, or an angry zealot on the corner of some street screaming about the heinous acts of sodomy in the modern world.

Another step, to the side and slightly up, as if they were waltzing up a staircase. 

His smile faded slightly as his resentment to normalcy grew another inch toward full-scale hatred. He had never really enjoyed the whole modern romance age that entertainment had moved into. 

He had tried it. The first girl he had allowed in his inner circle who seemed to like him had been Nat, and it was nice at first. But the good memories had really been superseded by the realization that this wasn't love. Their bond, to him at least, was nothing more than a complicated web of friendship and pain. 

 

He looked at Thor, in the blue and gold lights surrounding them. He hated to admit it, but this was so much different than Nat. This was a different kind of heat, of trust and hope. It found different ways to surprise him, each new and more terrifying than the last. 

He stumbled a little bit as his foot scraped the top of his dance partner's. 

Carefully following in his train, Banner looked down to reassure himself that his feet were working. 

Instead what he observed was something far more interesting than a marble floor or his black shoes. 

 

A vivid electric sheet under their feet, so brightly blue that it was bordering on white. Radiating out from the soles of their feet like ripples on a pond, stretching outward and eventually disappearing into the air a few yards away. It truly looked like they were stepping on the surface of an invisible ocean, disturbing it only with their touch as they continued to dance. His curiosity took over for a moment as he stretched a foot outward and moved it down. A buzzing bubbly feeling moved up his toes and shot up into his stomach. He stood still as he felt the electricity circle through his chest and firing down the opposite leg and out the sole of his foot. Sending a yellow ripple into the air below. 

 

They danced for a few more beats before Banner's senses overpowered his amazed trance. 

 

And now here they were. 

 

Bruce Banner, who would continue to struggle with a Jeckle-Hyde complex for another two years before eventually realizing that the only stable solution would be to combine the best parts of themselves together, shook in fear. 

 

Thor had muttered something comforting as he glanced at their surroundings. He watched in real-time as the god realized the consequences would be mostly on Banner. These underdeveloped humans weren't as forgiving as his people were. Guilt darkened his eyes as he studied his scientist's face. 

Banner could feel a warm, jittery heat spread up his arms and down his legs. 

"I'm so sorry Bruce." 

He was surprised by several things at once. 

The first was an apology from a god. It felt odd to hear it. There had been a few off moments that had lead to apologies before, but those had been mostly insincere and almost instinctual.

This was a deliberate apology, eye contact and all. 

 

The second was the feeling of Thor's hand lacing into his again. It's absence on his waist left a cold spot that raised the hairs on his arms. It wasn't as somber as the last few times. It was more to get his attention, or revenge. It felt like it was revenge because he was so hot he was worried he would melt just by proximity.  

 

But what really had his brain spiralling like a baseball card strapped to his childhood bicycle wheel was the last word. His name, his  _ first _ name. 

In all the time they had known each other, no matter how many times he had tried to get Thor to just use it, the stubborn creature had always said Banner. 

 

He wasn't entirely sure when or what had changed, but he liked it…  _ a lot. _ Bruce sounded a lot better in bedroom setting than Banner anyway. 

_ Jesus. Calm down, nasty.  _

 

A shiver ran up his spine with such a ferocity that he lifted his chin and sucked in through his teeth. It left him a little breathless and cold. 

"Let's just...get down from here, if we can. Then we  _ may _ have time for apologies."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this story is dedicated to my first and favorite Thruce writer @Ian_is_so_very_lost, like please go check them out! The number of times I squealed when I was reading their fic was ridiculous.


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